Now that Bulletstorm is on store shelves and spreading dicktits around the world, Epic's Mike Capps has addressed the notorious FOX News report in which psychologist Carole Lieberman accused the game, among others, of encouraging rape. Capps said there were two ways of looking at it -- one good, one bad.
"The first is what it does for Bulletstorm and the second is what it does for the industry," he explains. "For what it did for Bulletstorm ... yes, there were people who were very excited about any attention at all. For a game that's over-the-top, they probably helped sell more units than they convinced people to pick at us. What was most exciting about it for me [was the reaction from the media in the industry defending us]. Every journalist said this Fox report is junk ... It's wonderful to see a media that's defending free speech.
"As for what it does for the industry as a whole I think it's terrible. There are people who really respect Fox News' opinions and look at that and are [convinced that video games are bad]."
I have to say I disagree with what Capps said about the report being "terrible" for the industry. As Capps himself notes, Bulletstorm was a huge success, and he's confident the game will be a million seller. FOX is popular, yes, but its influence is finite and temporary. People will read the report, be outraged for a day, and forget it. Only those that care about games really remember, and they're not the ones believing this crap.
Short of a Catholic-grade pedophilia scandal, I'd say the game industry's on pretty unshakable ground right now. Views like Lieberman's are in their death rattle, as younger, game-savvy people rise up to take her place. The old and the increasingly irrelevant are the ones who insist on hating games, and their time is almost up. While we wait for them to finally shuffle off, I'd just enjoy the free advertising.
Bulletstorm Maybe Helped By FOX News Controversy [The A List, via GP]
Contest:
2:00 PM on 03.08.2011 | 
Fox News bad for everything, good for nothing.
Oh yeah? Sucks for them.
Perhaps its true that most FOX news viewers won't recall the name of this game or this singular report, but each instance of this adds to the whole "games are bad" tapestry. It all adds up and, unfortunately, FOX news viewers are probably more engaged voters than gamers.
I agree that the ridiculous anti-gaming movement is on the decline, but what I get from Capps' point is that the net effect for a politically-meaningful demographic is negative and therefore bad for the industry.
Seemingly benign issues and court cases (such as some currently ongoing ones regarding sale of games to minors) can have widespread impact and the gaming industry, like all industries, is not immune like you paint it to be.
There's always soccer moms. Always. If a game isn't wii sports or wii fit, then it's corrupting the children!
I see your point, but I don't entirely agree with the effects. I feel people who try and stifle social change are trying to catch the tide in a teacup -- it's simply not possible. Games have grown and grown, and I see reports like these are increasingly desperate flailings from those who are attempting to wring the last drips of outrage from an increasingly dry washcloth. I simply think it pays too much tribute to the anti-game set to believe they're capable of any significant damage. Perhaps that's overconfident, but I think the history of entertainment backs me up.
"There's always soccer moms. Always"
This is true, but it is more likely that the next generation of outraged parents will have left games alone and moved onto whatever new form of entertainment emerges next. As a new brand of social heroes rises, a new social villain takes the place of the old. Penny dreadful books, rock music, television, they've all been resisted, and they've all won. I see no reason why an industry that's already become an indomitable powerhouse will break convention here.
And to those hating on Fox exclusively, you know Mrs. Lieberman is a Democrat, right? Her husband was the VP nominee under Kerry in 04.
It is not about conservatives vs everyone else, it is about scared babyboomers forgetting the lessons they should have learned from seeing how their parents reacted to rock n roll.
Agreed, to some extent. There's certainly a bull-headed momentum behind industry growth right now that isn't likely to be upset by factually bankrupt afternoon reports on cable news.
However, I think gamers in countries like Germany and Australia, where game censorship is still much stiffer and much more prevalent wouldn't be nearly so nonchalant about it all. It's still an uphill battle in many places around the world (in regards to all types of censorship, in fact) and unfortunately, "those that care about games [who] really remember" aren't the only ones affecting change. If they were, Aussies wouldn't still be importing "cool" versions of L4D2.
I don't think anyone is trying to single out Fox News or conservatives. It's simply that this is a case of shit reporting. I take Fox News with the same ton of salt that I would with those cackling broads from The View.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/GAMES-ADDICT-KIDS-FIT-SCHOOL/article-3303193-detail/article.html
I taught in Plymouth for 15 years. I am not sure if I agree with this as most of the kids I knew were shite at gaming, reliant on cheats, so they may have been playing for hours but certainly not playing well!!!!!
I regularly wupped them at Tony Hawks (easiest proper game I could justify as being physicsy (if that is a word)
I'm a libertarian, so I don't eat right and left winger propaganda.
It hurts the image and makes it harder still for games to be considered a viable medium. While 17 year olds will buy the game up to rebel against whatever 17 year olds rebel against, 12 year olds who are dependent on the purchasing power of their parents may have their decision power taken away by this negative perception. This hurts console and software sales over the long run.
I think he's right that it just may be a short term victory overall. Negative press in a new medium still isn't that good, even if it boosts sales of a single title.
Warning: If you are mentally unstable or a Fox News contributer this game may warp your mind.
@ErrolGames
By any sane standards Fox News doesn't deserve to be called a news network.
I'm under 25 years old, and am completely and utterly fatigued by games whose only stated contribution to society is their ability to inspire short-lived outrage in Fox News-watching moms. Jim: Am I "old" and "increasingly irrelevant?"
I'd like to think that BECAUSE I'm young and game-savvy, I expect more from modern games than mere self-acknowledged bullet porn. I would hate for the next generation of gamers, when they take control of public opinion as you say they will, to unanimously accept mindless violence as an laudable use of the medium. There OUGHT to remain some people out there who are outraged by Bulletstorm - or at the very least, who don't celebrate it for being intentionally trashy.
The only game that beat it in its first week was Killzone 3. Not sure of the numbers, but number 2 for a new IP is pretty impressive.
I peeked around the 'Web for a little bit more and most of the links to these quotes went back to The A List. Maybe I should ask them what he said, or if he ok'd the paraphrasing. I might be nosier than I need to be here, but honestly when you can get an interview, unless it's absolutely necessary, you should take the words from your source as they come.
Of course, I have nothing against Jim reposting this here. It is news afterall. : /
2 things:
1) Wait, people like FOX?
2) That's why people don't like FOX, because it's never factual information. It's just opinion.
The interview from which these quotes are from
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/bulletstorm-will-top-1-million-helped-by-fox-news-says-epic/
which is either down or my laptop sucks because I had to view the Google cached version of the page.
I don't know what that means, but it seems fishy.
Bulletstorm a top-seller?! I guess I'm not surprised. The original Crackdown was a top-seller when it came out too, thanks to a certain beta. So who wants to bet that Activision is watching this and salivating while figuring out which next shit-release of theirs will come packaged with a MW3 beta invite?
She don't fuck around.
Damn, she give it to you STRAIGHT.
@Article/Jim
In my opinion, stuff like this has a sort of equalizing effect. It increases the game's sales, therefore helping the numbers side of the industry, but hurts the industry's reputation as a whole, which may eventually lead to some lost sales. It all sort of evens out. But, old people are dying, as mrandydixon so eloquently put it, so in a few decades when we grizzled gamers are the only ones left, I don't know if Fox will still be putting out these so called "news reports". I mean, just look at rock & roll.